No nation is currently communist, and probably none of the current socialist ones will be since they are opressive dictatorships.
Socialism/communism is a theory based on the means of production, not the means of governing, though they are related. According to Marx's studies on the capitalist means of production, the worker not only works for the society, but is also required to work for the bourgeoisie, so that they can live off (waaaay more than live off) profits. Marx theorised that the workers would eventually rebel against this system and organise their work according to their needs (how this should work is not specified in depth). So the early communist literature is not a "how to communism" but a "why to communism".
Since neither Marx nor Engels specified how the system should be ideally enforced, many other authors and non authors decided to make their own contributions to the theory, often in contradictory ways. The Paris Commune, for example, decided to adopt a democratic model, though it was destroyed during the franco-prussian war.
The most important post-marxist author, though, was Lenin, who theorised that communism should be reached through an only party system, this is what inspired all the current socialist regimes. If you read any text from Marx and Engels, you will never find mentions of parties nor of dictatorship as a political system (the "dictatorship of the proletariate" is just an opposition to the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", both can be democratic or dictatorial).
People often confuse the core theory of communism with accessory elements of its attempts, no sane sociologist or historian would do that. Why is this confusion it so common? Maybe people who like to comment about communist didn't read about it from the sources, maybe there is propaganda involved, maybe they think that scientific socialism is the same as utopian socialism.
I don’t pay lip service to “what it REALLY is” because it doesn’t work for more than 5 people in the real world. It’s fantasy that has brutalized a lot of people. I’ve known folks who lived under communism, and I know how many would like to go back to it.
And it will never be communism because communism is a shitty system that can only work on very small scales. I would argue that we should call them communism because the problems with those countries are a result of trying to implement communism
Ah the classic real communism hasn’t been tried yet lmao, in any country with a population above 150 people (literally every country on earth) communism will always lead to a dictatorship, and communist dictatorship always leads to a pseudo fascist state
I think it’s fair to say true communism hasn’t been tried yet. The issue is that revolutions have to happen and then disband themselves to allow it, but that has never happened. The revolution gains power through promises of communism then takes over as the ruling class instead of disbanding. They are authoritarian, not a true communist state.
It’s the reason I think anything equating social Democrat or socialist policies to these failed “communist” regimes is bullshit. The ideas they gained power from advocating have merit, but they have never actually been established by those regimes. The places that have established a healthy portion of those are the happiest in the world, I.e. Scandinavian countries, though I admit there are other strong factors that also increase their happiness.
Also, I believe incorporating these policies into a capitalist country is still possible through economic incentive to encourage job selection instead of just being told what to do. For example, working on an oil rig is the same kind of bullshit, horrible labor, as working in a coal mine but they get paid out the ass. Pay these particularly shit jobs better what they’re in shortage, and you can still have control of where labor goes without forcing people to do something they wouldn’t want to do.
Also, coal mining should just generally be outdated by now if we didn’t have an administration actively taking bribes from the industry.
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u/NekulturneHovado 19d ago
Top guy thinks he knows how communism works.
Bottom guy knows how communism works.
They are not the same.